[Photo] Former DAS president testifies Lee committed accounting fraud to create slush fund

The former president of auto parts maker Das, of which ex-president Lee Myung-bak has been determined to be the de facto owner, has testified that Lee committed accounting fraud at DAS to create a slush fund. On Apr. 12, in a trial for Lee’s appeal case on corruption and embezzlement charges, Kim Sung-woo, former DAS president, testified that Lee ordered Kim and company accountants to record DAS profits as lower than they actually were in order to prevent Hyundai Motor from lowering their prices for DAS’ auto parts. Kim added that Lee began these practices of accounting fraud in the early 1990s. Kim also responded in the affirmative when prosecutors asked him if Lee was the de facto owner of DAS. Furthermore, Kim said that Lee had orders to a subcontractor, where employees were on strike, gradually diminished in a scheme to put them out of business. The photo shows Lee after his release on bail from the Eastern Seoul Detention Center on Mar. 6. (Baek So-ah, staff photographer)